TOOLS OF THE TRADE ASSIGNMENT

ASSIGNMENT
Develop a personal tool that transforms your craft in a meaningful way. This tool needs to be relevant to your personal practice and the bigger context of your craft.

RESEARCH QUESTION
How do I create a tool that let's users appreciate a city in a different perspective.

WHAT IS MY TOOL
A brace for your neck

WHAT DOES IT DO
It forces the wearer to focus at different views in a city which they would never look at without it. (Interesting stuff can be seen in spots where you do don't expect it.)

WHAT IS THE A PROBLEM?
Appriciating a city is already hard, looking at the bigger picture is difficult for everyone and with the rise of mobile phones, the city has only become smaller.

WHY DOES THIS PROBLEM EXISTS?
Naturally, people focus on things that right in front of them and exploring new become quite hard.

WHAT IS THE VALUE?
In a world where most of the people live in their own small world.

WHY IS IT PERSONAL?
I realise all to well, that although i focus on how a city works and how people behave

RELATED ITEMS
- Brace for the neck when you have an injury

POINTS TO FOCUS ON DURING THE PROCESS
- Mechanics (2 ways of movement)
- Design (prototyping)
- Material (prototyping)
- Research on perspective
- Does it bring up the discussion?
- Related products / visuals
- Create a good wiki!
- Create a nice book in which you make all your sketched very clear

WHAT DO I LIKE TO WORK WITH AND WHY?
- Weather data because it is constantly changing and this could create an interesting tention in a object.
- Computational forming
- Movement

- - -

KICK OFF PRESENTATION

- - -

CAPACITIVE SENSOR / SERVO MOTOR

The capacitive sensor works due to the copper plates on top of all the blades.
This mesures the static energy of your hand when you wave over it.
The data then is being transfered to the arduino.
The arduino sketch sees the data and remaps that to fit the 1 to 180 degrees of the servo motor.
The connected servo motor then moves according to the amount of static energy of your hand.

VIDEO: CAPACITIVE SENSOR / SERVO MOTOR

By hovering your hand above the copper material different data is being
measured which triggers the servo motor at the bottom.

- - -

VIDEO: SERVO MOTOR CONTROLLED BY VARIABLE AND UNPREDICTED INPUT

The servo motor that is situated at the bottom of the object is connected to a varaible imput.
In this case, this is the wind in Rotterdam. When the wind flows from an
other angle, the movement will be immediately reflected in the object.
What essentially is being created is an uncontrolled movement due to the unpredicted wind.

- - -

VIDEO: SERVO MOTOR CONTROLLED BY VARIABLE AND UNPREDICTED INPUT

The same behavior like the object above, applies for the object underneath here.
Although now the object and behavior is being implemented together with some light.
It should create a light that flickers or changes unpredictably.

Plus the top of the object.

- - -

VIDEO: MY LIFE AFTER 44 YEARS IN PRISON

Otis Johnson went to jail at the age of 25. When he got out at 69, he rejoined a world that was starkly different from the one he remembered. This is his story.

- - -

TUNNEL VISION

When you are walking through the city, what do you look at? what do you remember?

- - -

CURRENT BRACES IN USE WHEN BEING IN A SEVERE NECK INJURY

Although all these braces seem functional and lack all attractiveness, that doesn't withhold people from using them.
It almost seems like an object which becomes an add-on to their style.